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detectors
J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142 doi:10.1107/S090904950503431X 131
Journal of
SynchrotronRadiation
ISSN 0909-0495
Received 20 June 2005
Accepted 23 October 2005
# 2006 International Union of Crystallography
Printed in Great Britain – all rights reserved
Silicon avalanche photodiodes for direct detectionof X-rays
Alfred Q. R. Baron,a* Shunji Kishimoto,b John Morsec and Jean-Marie Rigalc
aSPring-8/JASRI, Hyogo, Japan, bKEK, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, and cESRF, Grenoble, France.
E-mail: [email protected]
Silicon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are discussed as fast X-ray detectors for
synchrotron radiation. The emphasis is on ‘direct’ detection, where the X-ray is
absorbed within the silicon APD itself, and, therefore, on use with medium-
energy X-rays, <30 keV. The impact of APD structure on device performance is
examined, and representative data from many different commercial devices are
presented. Specific areas discussed include signal shapes, high-rate behavior,
time resolution and pulse-height response. Data from several APD arrays are
also presented, as is a detailed description of an integrated package system.
Tables are included comparing commercially available devices, including arrays.
Keywords: APD; time-resolved measurements; fast counting; large dynamic range.
1. Introduction
This paper provides an introduction to the use of avalanche
photodiodes, APDs, for direct X-ray detection. These devices,
with single photon sensitivity and an intrinsically fast
response, are the detector of choice in a variety of experi-
ments. Of particular note is their extremely large dynamic
range (the ratio of maximum count rate to noise rate is typi-
cally >108, and �1010 is possible) and very good time reso-
lution (�ns typical, <100 ps possible). Reasonable pulse-
height resolution (�20%) is also relatively straightforward,
even at high rates. Our main focus, and experience, is their use
at synchrotron radiation facilities for medium-energy X-rays,
<30 keV, but many results may be extrapolated to other work.
The outline of this paper is as follows. We review some of
the basic properties of APDs including the silicon structure
and the electronics, and some elementary concerns for high-
rate experiments. Then we present data from several of the
more useful single-element devices, and give a table of prop-
erties of many of the commercially available devices. We also
discuss one well packaged system (integrated set of APD,
amplifier, discriminator and counter) as an example of a
general-use detector optimized for fast-counting experiments
using synchrotron radiation. Finally we discuss array devices,
presenting data from several different arrays, and a table
comparing some commercial devices.
Development of APDs has been ongoing for the last 40
years or so (see Huth, 1968; McIntyre, 1966; Webb & Jones,
1974, and references therein). Much of the early work focused
on noise issues and the use of APDs as a solid-state analogue
to a photomultiplier tube: X-rays were mostly used as a probe
of performance, and fast X-ray detection was not considered.
After development of synchrotron radiation sources,
pioneering use of APDs for fast X-ray detection was made by
Kishimoto in the early 1990s (Kishimoto, 1991, 1992). Shortly
thereafter, Baron and co-workers extended this to larger area
and thicker devices that were more practical for synchrotron
radiation detection (Baron & Ruby, 1993; Baron, 1994). In
both cases it should be noted that much of the driving force for
the work came from the field of nuclear resonant scattering,
which requires fast detectors with good time resolution, and
tends to be badly count-rate limited (see papers in Gerdau &
de Waard, 2000). This field continues to place severe demands
on detectors. Subsequently, the use of APDs as more general
fast counters has been considered (Kishimoto, 1995; Baron et
al., 1997; Kishimoto et al., 1998), and overviews can be found
by Kishimoto (1998a,b) and Baron (2000).
Other notable points about APDs include their small size,
typical for a solid-state device, and, as compared with photo-
multiplier tubes (PMTs), their relative immunity to magnetic
fields. They also can be used in combination with scintillation
crystals for higher-energy X-ray detection (Carrier &
Lecomte, 1990; Moszynski et al., 2003) including workers using
them for positron emission tomography (PET). APDs can be
used for very low energy X-rays, down to 50 eV, with due care
regarding window structure (Gullikson et al., 1995), and can
also be operated at temperatures as low as 40 K (Yang et al.,
2003). Electron detection is also possible (Kishimoto, 2004)
but electrons damage the surface and will eventually destroy
the device.
2. APD basics
An APD is a diode doped so that when reverse bias is applied
there is a region of high electric field (>�105 V cm�1) which
causes charge carriers entering that region to undergo gain
due to impact ionization. APDs are typically operated in
either a linear mode where the device has a well defined small-
signal gain (10 to 100 for most devices discussed here), or in a
Geiger mode where they are biased above breakdown and a
single electron leads to run-away gain. Here we discuss only
linear operation, as Geiger operation leads to high noise rates
and is generally most interesting for detection of very low
energy (�eV) photons.
Diagrams of several device structures are shown in Fig. 1.
The depletion layer of the device consists of a low-field (drift)
region and a high-field (gain) region. For modest-energy
X-rays the dominant process in Si is photoelectric absorption,
typically leading to a single electron having almost the energy
of the incident X-ray. This electron then quickly loses energy
to scattering processes in the silicon. On average, at room
temperature, one electron hole–pair will be created for each
3.6 eV of energy deposited in the silicon. These electrons drift
to the gain region of the device and are amplified. It is worth
noting that at higher X-ray energies an increasing fraction of
the X-rays will suffer Compton scattering (see Fig. 2), which,
for most geometries, will cause the photon to go out of the
detector without deposition of sufficient energy for detection.
Thus, direct detection in silicon devices becomes increasingly
inefficient at higher X-ray energies, owing both to decreased
photoelectric absorption and to increased scattering out of
the APD.
Two essential parameters for describing the response of an
APD to X-rays are its active thickness and its capacitance. The
active thickness of the device is that part of the silicon in which
X-ray absorption will lead to subsequent electron amplifica-
tion. This affects both the efficiency of the device and the time
resolution. The attenuation length in Si as a function of X-ray
energy is shown in Fig. 2, allowing one to estimate the effi-
ciency of APDs at different energies if the active thickness is
known. Above 10 keV it is clear that an active thickness of
100 mm or more is desirable to have reasonable efficiency.
Improvement can be gained by using devices at grazing inci-
dence (Baron & Ruby, 1994) or stacking devices (Baron et al.,
detectors
132 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142
Figure 1Schematic of the structure and field profile of several types of APDs. See text, xx2 and 5. The orientations are chosen so that, under bias, free electronswill move from left to right. Hatched sections of the field profile indicate the gain region. [After Webb et al. (1974) and McIntyre et al. (1996).] Accordingto the usual diode convention, the left side is the anode and the right side is the cathode, with the X-rays shown entering through the anode. Reversebiasing (shown) is achieved by applying, say, positive HV to the cathode (right side) and holding the anode (left side) at ground.
Figure 2Absorption length in silicon as a function of X-ray energy. Note that theincreasing importance of Compton and Rayleigh scattering at higherenergies means that direct detection of X-rays in the device will becomeincreasingly inefficient above 30 keV, even if the device could be madefairly thick. Calculations based on Cromer & Liberman (1981) andMcMaster et al. (1969), using code based on Brennan & Cowan (1992).
1997), and one should note that the grazing incidence can be
especially effective for small beam sizes. The high-field drift
velocity in Si is about 100 mm ns�1 (Jacoboni et al., 1977).
Since X-rays tend to penetrate and (to a first approximation)
uniformly illuminate the active thickness of Si, the time
resolution is generally not better than the active thickness
over the drift velocity (assuming, of course, normal entry into
the device). This means that there is typically a trade-off
between device efficiency and time resolution: for example, an
APD with a 100 mm active thickness will generally not have
better than about 1 ns time resolution, while to get below
100 ps time resolution the active thickness should be �10 mm
or less.
The APD capacitance, determined by the area and the
thickness of the depletion region, affects both the height and
the width of the voltage pulse from the device. In detail,
considering the APD as a parallel-plate device with constant
field (see Knoll, 2000), one finds that the rise time of the
voltage signal will be governed by the details of the charge
transport within the device, while the fall time is not shorter
than the RC time constant of the diode capacitance and the
amplifier input impedance (e.g. RC = 1 ns for a 20 pF diode
capacitance into 50 �). Meanwhile, the voltage signal height
scales inversely with the device capacitance, for a fixed gain, so
devices with lower capacitance (smaller areas, thicker deple-
tion regions) generally provide larger and faster signals.1
Detailed discussion of device structure, especially as related
to noise properties of the APD, can be found by McIntyre
(1972) and Webb et al. (1974), while reviews of charge trans-
port in silicon can be found by Sze (1981) and Jacoboni et al.
(1977). Here we note that an important parameter in device
performance is the ratio of electron gain to hole gain on
passing through a region of the device: statistical fluctuation in
gain (noise) is reduced when one carrier type undergoes much
stronger multiplication than the other. In silicon, electron
multiplication dominates strongly over hole multiplication, so
that noise properties are relatively good. This is in contrast
with other materials (Ge, InGaAs and derivatives) where the
coefficients are more nearly equal. However, some recent
work suggests that if very narrow gain regions are used the
amplification properties are improved, even for cases when
the gain is similar for electrons and holes (Rees & David,
2003), so that one might hope for more progress with non-
silicon APD structures in the near future.
3. Electronics
For most of the applications discussed here, the APD is
followed by a wide-bandwidth (�GHz) voltage amplifier.
While other types of amplifiers have been considered, the
voltage amplifier seems to be a reasonable compromise
between speed and convenience on the one hand, and noise
characteristics on the other. In cases where it might be useful
to sacrifice speed for better noise performance (i.e. to get to
very low X-ray energies with a larger area device), one might
reconsider a transimpedance amplification scheme. Going the
opposite direction, toward higher bandwidths, might also be
considered but one should note that the minimum X-ray pulse
separation at most synchrotron radiation facilities is 2 or 3 ns.
Voltage amplifiers are available in pre-packaged form from
several manufacturers, but also can be home or custom built.
The main advantage of the latter is the ability to tailor the
amplifier to the detector package design, and to place it very
close to the APD, reducing noise and reflections [see Baron et
al. (1997) for a simple useful low-power design]. Practically
speaking, the relatively high bandwidth of most APD set-ups
requires due care in design of both the APD enclosure and the
interface with electronics, to avoid possible reflections, noise
and amplifier oscillation. Scope traces from various APD
structures discussed in x5 are shown in Fig. 3.
Downstream electronics usually include both a discrimi-
nator and a counter. There are no special requirements for
these beyond the more obvious ones: appropriate input
impedance (typically 50 �), a discriminator threshold range
appropriate to the signal height out of the amplifier, and low
dead times for higher-count-rate experiments. Generally, in
this time region, NIM or ECL level logic signals are standard.
Discriminators can be bought from Phillips Scientific (http://
www.phillipsscientific.com/) and Ortec (http://www.ortec-
online.com/) among others, while counters are available from
many companies. It can be somewhat difficult to find devices
operating with less than 5 ns dead-times or pulse widths;
however, one company that makes faster (300 MHz) discri-
minators and counters (for CAMAC) is Technoland (http://
www.tcnland.co.jp/). It is worth noting that with the very fast
rise-time signals often used in the fastest (sub-ns) timing
experiments, and with the relatively good intrinsic pulse-
height resolution of the devices, there appear to be no strong
improvements to the time resolution by using a commercially
available constant fraction timing system (such as the 935 CFD
from Ortec). Most of the work discussed here has been
performed with leading-edge discriminators.
4. High rates
One of the main interests in APDs stems from their ability to
count at rather high rates: ns pulse widths hint at maximum
count rates of several hundred Mcounts s�1. In practice,
however, high rates require some care, especially as a detector
known to be ‘fast’ can sometimes lead the user to push things a
bit. If even modest rates are of interest, then it is very
important to have some idea of the counting system dead-time,
to properly judge pile-up effects. Typically, for an APD with
the wide-bandwidth electronics discussed here, the detector
dead-time is indeed of the order of ns, with a worst case of
about 10 to 20 ns for very large capacitance devices. However,
the system dead-time includes contributions from the dead-
time of the discriminator and the counter. In addition, and
especially notable at a synchrotron radiation facility, the
detectors
J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes 133
1 This is a useful rule of thumb, best applied for comparing devices with thesame structure and different areas. If comparing devices of differentstructures, some care is needed as structural changes imply changes in fieldprofiles and carrier transport properties that may affect signal heights andrise times.
source time structure is very important: the electron bunch
structure in the storage ring, which directly gives the time
structure of the incident X-ray pulses, can vary widely. For
example, at SPring-8 the minimum bunch spacing is 2 ns, but a
substantial part of operating time includes spacings of 24 to
200 ns, which can easily be the limiting system dead-time.
A general discussion of high-rate behavior can become
rather involved, but a first approximation is both relatively
easy and useful. Assuming that the system dead-time, �, is
known and well defined, and a lower level discriminator only
is being used, then a simple non-paralyzable model (see Knoll,
2000, pp. 119–122) allows one to write the true rate, n, from an
ideal linear system without dead-time in terms of the
measured rate, m, as
n ¼ m= 1�m�ð Þ: ð1Þ
Generally, this is a reasonable approximation at lower rates
and, in fact, other models (e.g. the paralyzable model) give the
same result to first order in n�. It also gives the correct high-
rate limit if the bunch spacing in the storage ring is the limiting
dead-time, and all bunches are uniformly filled. Note that in
the event that an upper-level discriminator is used to make a
window around the single-photon pulse height, this form is
wrong [see also the discussion by Bateman (2000)].
Several checks of APD behavior at high rates have been
carried out using different devices and electronics and with
different levels of sophistication (Kishimoto, 1995, 1997;
Baron et al., 1997). Examples are shown in Fig. 4. Dead-times
of �3 ns have been achieved in favorable operational modes
with relatively fast, 300 MHz, discriminators and counters,
with maximum measured count rates of �108 (Kishimoto,
1995). The maximum achievable rate can also be increased by
using a stack of devices in a transmission geometry (Kishimoto
et al., 1998), which is sometimes referred to as a ‘telescope’.
Stacking devices, however, are complicated by the fact that
absorption in upstream devices leads to non-uniform count
rates in the stacked detectors, with the front detector at higher
rates. There can also be a sensitive dependence on the X-ray
energy as the absorption changes. An alternative is an array of
devices at grazing incidence (see x8) to avoid the absorption-
induced non-uniformity. However, this introduces sensitivity
to the spatial distribution of the detected beam. Finally, for the
detectors
134 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142
Figure 4High-count-rate behavior of single-element devices in different config-urations. (a) 5 mm � 5 mm APD (C30626) followed by a Phillips 708discriminator and an ESRF counter card, with an asymmetric storing-ringfilling pattern. Dead-time contributions include the discriminator pulse-pair resolution (�7 ns), the counter dead-time (�5 ns) and the 2/3 fillingmode of storage-ring operation. (b) Single-element SPL2625 device usingTechnoland discriminators and counters. (c) ESRF package system withbaseline restoration in a near-uniform fill mode.
Figure 3Scope traces from several different APDs (see text, x5 for details) usingthe amplifier discussed by Baron et al. (1997) (a, b, d, e) and a KeycomLNA-012 (c). The heavy solid line shows the response averaged overmany events, while the thin line shows a single event with noise [averageonly in (a) and single event only in (c)]. Note that the exact pulse heightsrelative to noise will depend on the APD gain, and the signal shape canalso be affected by parasitic capacitances that are not included in theestimates shown. The overshoots visible on the average signal (b) and (d)result from less than ideal coupling to the amplifier. Also note that for theslower signals in (d) and (e) a smaller bandwidth amplifier, as used in thepackage system discussed in x7, is more appropriate and should be lessnoisy.
case where the source bunch spacing (synchrotron operational
mode) is the main source of dead-time, some increase in
maximum count rate for a single device may be gained by
fanning out the signal and using several discriminator levels
corresponding to 1, 2, 3, . . . photon events (Toellner et al.,
1994).
We emphasize two points before leaving the subject of high-
rate experiments. The first is that while a fast detector easily
adds to the convenience of an experiment, to use it effectively
requires some care. Applying the above model, taking m� ’0.1, or a measured rate of 20 Mcounts s�1 for a 5 ns dead-time,
an uncorrected measurement will have a 10% error (integral
non-linearity) and one expects that the corrected rate is good
at the level of 1%, assuming the proper dead-time is known.
At m� = 0.01, a 2 Mcounts s�1 rate for a 5 ns dead-time,
uncorrected rates should be accurate at the 1% level and
corrected rates at the 0.01% level. It is clearly important to
take this into account to make accurate measurements. The
second point, evident in Fig. 4, is that at higher count rates
(n� > 0.3) simple models, and even more complicated ones,
tend to fail. In fact, issues such as the AC coupling the
amplifier, and voltage droop owing to increased current in the
APD and a limiting resistor, can change the effective detector
characteristics at high rates. Thus extreme care is needed in
the higher rate regime and, probably, a calibration measure-
ment is necessary, in a configuration almost identical to the
experimental one.
5. Devices and time resolution
APDs are commercially available from several companies.
Here we mention devices from Perkin-Elmer Instruments
(PKI) (formerly EG&G) (based in Quebec, Canada; http://
optoelectronics.perkinelmer.com/),2 Hamamatsu Photonics
(based in Hamamatsu, Japan; http://www.hamamatsu.com/),
Advanced Photonics Inc. (API) (based in Camarillo, CA,
USA; http://www.advancedphotonix.com/) and Radiation
Monitoring Devices (RMD) (based in Watertown, MA, USA;
http://www.rmdinc.com/). PKI and Hamamatsu specialize in
reach-through devices, while API and RMD focus on beveled-
edge devices. In general, each type of device has different
properties, and even different models within a class can vary
significantly. Table 1 summarizes the properties of many
devices with some details discussed below.
Reach-through devices, with structure similar to Fig. 1(a),
have a long history (see, for example, Webb & Jones, 1974). At
present, devices of similar structure and behavior can be
bought from both PKI and Hamamatsu, with larger single-
element devices available from PKI (10 mm � 10 mm and
5 mm� 5 mm) and smaller devices from Hamamatsu (3 mm�
5 mm and 3 mm-diameter sizes are typical). Smaller devices
are also available from PKI, but are not readily supplied in
packages without windows, while Hamamatsu also make
several array structures based on the 3 mm � 5 mm device
(see x8). These devices tend to have larger active thicknesses,
100 to 180 mm, and time resolutions of 1 to 2 ns full width at
half-maximum (FWHM). In terms of X-ray detection, their
main notable property is that they have comfortably large
areas and a single device is reasonably efficient at normal
incidence. As such, for example, they are used in the general
purpose packages mentioned in x7. Devices from both
companies can be purchased without a back, or in a trans-
parent form, so that stacking is possible to increase dynamic
range and/or efficiency at higher energies (Hauger et al., 1994;
Baron et al., 1997; Kishimoto et al., 1998; Shvyd’ko, 1999).
A variety of epitaxial reach-through structures are also sold
by Hamamatsu, including the S238X and S534X series (X to
be replaced by a number correlating with device diameter).
The former was the first device used for fast X-ray detection
(Kishimoto, 1991, 1992) while the latter was shown to have
�100 ps time resolution (Kishimoto, 1994), made possible by
detectors
J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes 135
Table 1Properties of some single-element APDs.
Company Model SizeOperatingvoltage
Activethickness(mm)
Capacitance(pF mm�2)† Gain†
TimeresolutionFWHM/tail (ns)
Perkin-Elmer(PKI/EG&G)
C30626 5 mm � 5 mm and smaller 300–400 �110 1.2 50–150 �1/3
C30703 10 mm � 10 mm 350–450 �110 1.2 50–150 �1/4Prototype‡ 10 mm � 10 mm 350–450 �180 < 1 50–150 1.7/7C30719‡ reverse 5 mm � 5 mm 350–450 < 10 – �50 0.17/2–3§
Hamamatsu SPL2625‡ Diameter 3 mm, 3 mm � 5 mm 500–700 �130 �1 30–50 1.3/3S238X Diameter 0.2–5 mm �150 �30 6 50–100 0.3/5§S534X Diameter 1 mm, 3 mm �150 � 10 16 �50 �0.08/< 2S534X LC‡ Diameter 1, 3, 5 mm �250 �20 5 �50 �0.15/< 2S8644-XXK reverse Diameter 0.2 to 5 mm, 5 mm � 5 mm �400 �7 3 �50 Not tested
AdvancedPhotonix Inc.
LAAPD beveled-edge Diameter 3–16 mm �2000 30–50 �1 �200 �0.4/> 5§
RadiationMonitoringDevices
S0814 8 mm � 8 mm �1700 30–50 �1? 300–2000 �0.4/> 10§S1315 beveled-edge 13 mm � 13 mm
† Capacitance and gain values are from the literature. ‡ Device not in catalogue – inquire directly of the company. § The tail of the time response may be reduced by higherdiscriminator threshold setting.
2 Note that original work on some of these devices was carried out by RCA,then moving to EG&G Optoelectronics. After EG&G bought out Perkin-Elmer, EG&G changed its name to PKI.
its rather small, �10 mm, active thickness. Fig. 5 shows the
time response of the S5343 device, with a measured 82 ps
FWHM, suggesting a time resolution of �72 ps if the source
pulse width is subtracted. The very short tail on the time
response (<2 ns at 10�5 of the maximum) is also useful in
some cases, especially for nuclear resonant scattering.
However, a difficulty with these devices is that their thin
depletion region leads to relatively large capacitances (see
Table 1) so the pulse height is small. For example, attempts to
match the <100 ps time resolution of the S53543, a 1 mm-
diameter device, using a 3 mm-diameter S5344 device having
nominally the same structure failed because the signal height
decreased so much that amplifier noise blurred the resolution
to �140 ps. Thus the development of a low-capacitance
version of this series, S534X LC, where the depletion region
was increased was greeted with enthusiasm. For the LC device
the active thickness was also increased, to �20 mm, which
increased the overall time resolution to �150 ps FWHM (see
Fig. 5). However, the signal-to-noise ratio was dramatically
improved, and the tail of the time response behaved similarly
to the original device. This device, then, is especially inter-
esting as a fast low-energy X-ray detector (low energy because
it is thin) and for cases where a short time response is
essential.
The third structure shown in Fig. 1, the ‘reverse’-type reach-
through device, is a new design, with devices made both by
PKI (McIntyre et al., 1996; Lecomte et al., 1999) and Hama-
matsu (Dieters et al., 2000; Renker, 2002). This structure was
developed in response to the need of the high-energy physics
community for >105 devices for the CMS calorimeter at
CERN (Dieters et al., 2000). Here, as compared with the
earlier reach-through design, the gain region is moved up to
the front so that the active thickness is drastically reduced,
while the depletion layer thickness is kept large. This makes
the device, designed for use with scintillators, deliberately less
sensitive to penetrating particles, while preserving a relatively
low capacitance. As regards X-ray detection, these devices are
most interesting at low energies when the loss owing to the
limited active thickness is not so severe. In this sense they are
similar to the S534X LC series. They are also potentially
interesting when good time resolution is needed. For the case
of the larger area (5 mm � 5 mm) C30719 device tested in
Fig. 5, the time resolution could easily have been degraded by
electrical noise, as discussed above. One also can expect there
to be large event-to-event gain fluctuations in the reverse
structure since a large fraction of the X-rays will be absorbed
within the gain region and be only partially amplified. It might
be interesting then to consider a fast constant fraction discri-
minator to improve the timing performance of the reverse
structure devices.
The ‘beveled-edge’ device (Fig. 1b) dates back to work in
the 1960s at General Electric (see Huth, 1968, and references
therein) and, interestingly, the essential idea discussed here,
using an APD followed by a discriminator and counter, was
discussed very early on (Locker & Huth, 1966), in contrast to
the focus on noise properties that seems to have dominated
the discussion of reach-through devices. At present, beveled-
edge devices are available from API and RMD, and discussion
of some of the details of these devices can be found by
Moszynski et al. (2000) for API devices and Squillante et al.
(1985) and Farrell et al. (2000) for RMD devices. Particular
advantages of the beveled-edge structure are the possibility to
go to very large areas (e.g. a 200 mm2 device is available from
API) and very high gains, especially in devices from RMD
(Farrell et al., 1994). Also, the distributed nature of the gain
region in these devices facilitates their operation at low
temperatures, down to 40 K (Yang et al., 2003). However, the
presence of a low-field region at the front of the device leads
to a tail in the time response (Baron & Ruby, 1993), as seen in
Fig. 5. In addition, this region, and the rather wide gain region,
can lead to a pulse-height response with a long tail, or even
multiple peaks at high gains. These factors, along with a
certain lack of device stability, including device failure, in
devices tested some years ago, have led us to favor reach-
through devices for X-ray detection. We note the recent
development of a grooved planar device (without the bevel)
detectors
136 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142
Figure 5Time response of several different types of APDs, as listed. Fullhorizontal scale is 2.5 ns in each case. See x5 of the text for discussion.
by RMD (Farrell et al., 2000; Shah et al., 2001), but they have
not been investigated, to our knowledge, as regards their time
response. Their pulse-height response, however, is very similar
to that of the beveled devices, and one might expect the time
response to be as well.
Before leaving the subject of time response of the devices, it
is worth emphasizing two caveats. The first is that the time
resolution (FWHM) of the faster devices is noise sensitive (see
also the discussion by Hauger et al., 1994). An extreme case
was mentioned above where a larger-area version of the
S534X series had significantly poorer time resolution than a
smaller-area version (�80 ps for the 1 mm-diameter 5343
versus �140 ps for the 3 mm-diameter 5344), but this is also
true for other devices. Generally, the lower the capacitance,
the larger the signal height and the smaller the effect of noise.
However, even with the S534X LC (‘low capacitance’) models,
the time resolution seems to vary from 140 ps for a small-area
model to 160 ps for a larger-area model. The other point worth
mentioning is that not all devices of a given type are the same.
On the one hand there can be deliberate changes introduced
by the manufacturer and, on the other, there is often device-
to-device variation within a class, depending on date of
manufacture etc. This applies to operating voltages, gains and
even to field distributions within the device.
6. Pulse-height response
It is sometimes desirable to make use of the pulse-height
response of the APD for energy discrimination. This can be
done with the fast signal by just using a lower-level discrimi-
nator or, in some cases, by setting both a lower level and upper
level threshold.3 It can also be done using slower (�ms)
nuclear electronics, with good results [10% typical resolution,
even 5% possible for cooled devices at low gains (Kishimoto,
1998a,b]; however, the slower electronics partially defeat the
purpose of a fast detector. Thus we focus on discrimination of
the fast signals from the �GHz bandwidth voltage amplifiers
discussed above. Experimentally this has been investigated
with the thicker types of reach-through devices from PKI
(Baron et al., 1997) and Hamamatsu (Kishimoto et al., 1998).
Fig. 6 shows measured responses for a 5 mm � 5 mm C30626
device from PKI and a 3 mm-diameter SPL2625 device from
Hamamatsu. At lower X-ray energies, 5.9 keV, a relatively
clean spectrum of about 20% FWHM is observed, while at
higher-energy X-rays a tail develops as the X-rays penetrate
into the gain region. Thus, one can expect that the pulse-height
distribution will depend sensitively on the type of device as
well as the incident X-ray energy.
The high-rate behavior of the pulse-height distribution is
also shown, and in general it is fine up to rates of
10 Mcounts s�1 or so, and is even not bad at 47 Mcounts s�1
from the smaller device (Fig. 6c). It is worth noting that there
is a shift in centroid of the response to low energies (voltages)
as the rate is increased. This results from the AC coupling of
the amplifier system: the net charge through the system must
be zero, so that a fast negative going signal is accompanied by
a slow positive overshoot of equal area, the timescale of which
is set by the low-frequency cut-off of the system. At high rates
the positive overshoot builds up and leads to a decrease in the
signal height relative to a fixed external discriminator
threshold. The effect of the shift will generally scale with APD
capacitance: devices having smaller capacitances generally
have shorter output pulses, so while the baseline shift will have
the same integral as the signal pulse, it will be a smaller
fraction of the signal height than for a larger capacitance
detectors
J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes 137
Figure 6Pulse-height response of reach-through APDs with fast electronics asmeasured by scanning the window of a fast discriminator. (a) 6 and14.4 keV response of the 5 mm � 5 mm C30626 device from PKI at lowrates. Note the tail in the 14.4 keV response owing to penetration into thegain region (see Baron et al., 1997). (b) Effect of count rate at 14 keV. (c)Pulse-height response with a 3 mm-diameter SPL2625 from Hamamatsuat 16.5 keV (see Kishimoto, 1998b). Note the centroid shift as the rateincreases in (b) and (c). (d) Response of the C30626 device (in the ESRFpackage system, see x7) as a function of operating voltage for 6 keV X-rays at about 1 Mcount s�1. The broadening from 21% (280 V) to 27%(380 V) with increased gain is typical for this device. Vertical andhorizontal scales have been adjusted for convenient display; however, thezero is well defined.
3 The Phillips Scientific model 730 discriminator has both upper and lowerlevels.
device (see also the discussion in x7 where additional elec-
tronics are used to reduce the baseline shift in the ESRF
package system).
7. Package systems
A package system, including the APD and most, or all, of the
downstream electronics, is extremely convenient for users, or
beamline scientists, who do not wish to become involved in the
details of the detector design and operation. Thus some
synchrotron radiation facilities, including the NSLS at
Brookhaven and the ESRF in Grenoble, have made such
systems. Here we discuss the ESRF package in some detail.
The NSLS package (Kuczewski & Siddons, 2002) is similar,
providing the detector head with APD and amplifier, and then
a NIM module with power supplies and discriminator. The
NSLS package is designed with the 53 MHz bunch frequency
of NSLS in mind, and does not have a baseline restoration
circuit.
The ESRF package consists of a miniature APD head, and a
NIM format ‘ACE’ configurable electronic controller unit (see
Fig. 7a), with supporting software for both SPEC and
LabVIEW. A GPIB interface is used. Notable hardware
features include:
(i) A very small APD head (see Fig. 7b) that is easily
exchanged to allow use of different devices or different
mounting geometries (side or front window) to match
experimental needs.
(ii) A low-noise 500 MHz bandwidth pre-amplifier that
allows operation at energies down to 3 keV with a PKI C30626
device and less than 0.1 counts s�1 dark rate.
(iii) Active and passive current limiting to protect the APD,
as well as a high voltage (HV) shutdown option on sustained
overload, as might arise if the APD were placed in the direct
beam.
(iv) A temperature monitor that is interfaced with the HV
control to allow the bias to be adjusted to compensate for
temperature-induced gain variations. In practice, with a
temperature coefficient of about 1.3% K�1 for a typical PKI
36206 APD at a gain of 100 and the low power-consumption of
the pre-amplifier, <300 mW, this has not been needed. Note
that varying the APD bias to stabilize the gain is considerably
easier than maintaining the APD at a constant temperature.
(v) A 100 MHz counter/single-channel analyzer that can
operate at burst rates up to 180 MHz.
(vi) Upper and lower discriminator thresholds configurable
to allow integral or window counting modes.
(vii) Feedback of the operating HV to stabilize device gain
at high rates where the larger current in the protection resistor
leads to droop in the voltage across the APD.
Notable control features include: (i) a touch-screen
graphical display for convenient local set-up; (ii) a multi-
channel histogram option (by scanning a discriminator
window) and the possibility to use this to automatically set the
lower-level discriminator threshold; (iii) the possibility to
synchronize multiple count-times with external triggers with
better than 10 ns precision.
The combination of these features creates a flexible and
robust system that is now in widespread and routine use at the
ESRF. The general behavior has been partially covered in
previous sections, including count rates up to 50 Mcounts s�1
with 60% efficiency (see Fig. 4) and �20% pulse-height
resolution (Fig. 6).
Two notable features were included to improve the high-
rate behavior of the system. A base-line restoration circuit
(a double Schottky diode design) was included in the ACE
module to help remove the affects of the AC coupling
discussed in x6. Simulations using a pulser (see Fig. 8) showed
that this leads to a significant reduction in the effect on the
peak heights so that, despite the relatively high capacitance
(�30 pF) of a 5 mm � 5 mm C30626 device, rates up to
50 Mcounts s�1 were possible. In addition, a fixed discrimi-
nator reset time is included and is set at slightly longer
(5.4 ns) than the pulse width from a single photon so that the
dead-time should not be affected by X-ray energy. This, in
detectors
138 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142
Figure 7The ESRF package system. (a) The ‘ACE’ NIM format controller moduleand an assembled APD detector head package. Note the front panelNIM/TTL inputs that permit external hardware synchronization. (b) Theopen APD head, fitted here with a 3 mm � 5 mm SPL2625 device fromHamamatsu. The layout of the three-stage preamplifier can be seen.
principle, allows a dead-time correction to be determined
for a given storage-ring fill pattern that is independent of
X-ray energy.
8. Arrays
Array devices, either one-dimensional or two-dimensional, are
interesting for covering large areas to obtain position-resolved
information and, in some cases, to allow higher count rates or
to make a more efficient detector. For example, APD arrays
are either in use, or could be immediately useful, in nuclear
resonant scattering experiments or fast intensity correlation
measurements. Arrays can be either monolithic, with multiple
elements on a single piece of silicon, or assembled, with
separate silicon pieces placed close together. Assembled
arrays offer the advantage that devices can be selected
according to their performance, and, in some cases, can even
be replaced if they die; however, they also generally have
larger dead-space between elements. Table 2 lists a variety of
array devices, and we discuss some in more detail below.
PKI has produced several linear arrays based on their
standard reach-through structure (�110 mm active thickness)
with specialized guard-rings and electrodes (see Table 2).
These are notable for their small element size, developed with
an eye toward fiber-optic applications, and for the use of
bump-bonding on the back (cathode) to make electrical
contact to each element. Brief tests of one of the 25 element
linear arrays (C30985), see Fig. 9, showed timing performance
similar to the parent C30703 structure, while element sizes
were �275 mm (FWHM) along the array direction and
�440 mm (FWHM) perpendicular to the array direction, with
flat top regions of �150 mm � 220 mm. The dead-space,
FWHM to FWHM, is about 50 mm. It is worth noting that the
bump-bonding has the advantage that there are no bond wires
to shadow the front surface. It also inverts the signal polarity
relative to the more typical case of taking the signal from the
front surface (anode), so both the amplifier and, possibly, the
high-voltage bias system require modification (inversion) if
taken from a typical set-up for a single-element device.
Hamamatsu makes assembled arrays of their thicker
(SPL2625) structures (�140 mm active thickness), with typical
element sizes of 3 mm � 5 mm, and thus rather different than
the small-element monolithic devices made by PKI. These
large-element assembled arrays (see Fig. 10) are useful for
covering larger areas, especially for nuclear inelastic scattering
experiments, and, possibly, for synchrotron-radiation-based
perturbed angular correlation measurements. Comparing
these to the PKI 10 mm� 10 mm devices, one notes that there
are losses owing to the 1 mm dead-space, and increased
complexity because several channels of electronics are
needed. However, this is offset by the large total area of the
array and, in some cases, by the improved signal to noise
arising from the smaller capacitance (smaller area) of a single
element, making it easier to detect lower-energy X-rays. We
detectors
J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes 139
Table 2APD array devices. ‘Type’ refers to the assembly: M = monolithic, A = assembled from separate devices, R = replaceable elements.
Company Device structure Type Array pixels Pixel size Dead-space (mm) Reference
Perkin-Elmer(PKI/EG&G)
C30985† M 1 � 25 �0.4 mm � 0.3 mm pitch �0.05 Webb & McIntyre (1984)
† M 1 � 32 0.35 mm � 0.15 mm pitch �0.05 Trakalo et al. (1987)† M 1 � 128 2 mm � 0.15 mm pitch �0.05 Webb & Dion (1991)
Hamamatsu S238X M 1 � 16 Diameter 1 mmor 1 mm � 1 mm
0.1 Hara et al. (1996)
‡ M 1 � 32 3.8 mm � 0.5 mm Variable Nonaka et al. (1996)S534X LC M 1 � 16 2.5 mm � 1 mm 0.1 Baron et al. (2001)SPL2625 A 2 � 16 and 2 � 4 3 mm � 5 mm 1 Kishimoto et al. (2003)50 mm§ M 2 � 4 1 mm � 0.5 mm 0.1 Kishimoto et al. (2003)S5343 LC AR 1 � 10 Diameter 3 mm 1 This work
AdvancedPhotonix Inc.
Beveled-edge M 8 � 8 1.3 mm � 1.3 mm 0 Gramsch et al. (1993)
Grooved 0.5 mm � 0.5 mm 0 Gramsch et al. (1994)Radiation
MonitoringDevices
Planar beveled M 4 � 4 2.1 mm � 2.1 mm 0.4 Farrell et al. (2000)Grooved 8 � 8 13 mm � 13 mm 0.4Planar beveled grooved M 14 � 14 2 mm � 2 mm pitch 0.1 Shah et al. (2001)Planar beveled Anger} M 1} 14 mm � 14 mm} 0} Levin et al. (2004)
† While these have variable structures in the plane of the device, their structure normal to the surface is basically the same reach-through device discussed in the text (e.g. the C30703structure). ‡ Several devices were constructed of varying structures for test purposes. § This is a specially developed 50 mm reach-through device on a 50 mm-thick wafer. } Thisdevice uses leads in each corner to measure relative signal heights and so determine the event position, similar to an Anger camera.
Figure 8Effect of the baseline restoration circuit in the ESRF package. Reductionin effective pulse height as a function of input pulse rate both with andwithout the restoration circuit. This test was carried out using a frequencygenerator adjusted to simulate the APD signal pulse shape.
note that Hamamatsu has fabricated some special thin
monolithic array devices using 50 mm-thick silicon (Kishimoto
et al., 2003). Stacking of this device is especially interesting for
measuring nuclear inelastic scattering from isotopes with short
lifetimes.
Hamamatsu also makes many different monolithic arrays
based on their thinner epitaxic structures (active thickness
<30 mm, e.g. S238X, S534X, S534X LC; see Table 2, and
references therein). The dead-space between contacts on the
front surface is typically 100 mm, with element sizes of 1 to
2 mm2 and bond wires are used to make the contacts to the
front of the device. Here we discuss one device (see Fig. 11)
that was used for nuclear forward scattering (Baron et al.,
2001). This is a 16-element device, based on the S534X LC
structure, with individual elements of 1 mm � 2.5 mm on a
1.1 mm pitch. Inclining the device at about 3� relative to
the X-ray beam then gives a detector acceptance of about
0.8 mm � 2.5 mm and an effective increase of about �20 in
the active thickness perpendicular to the X-ray beam. This
detectors
140 Alfred Q.R. Baron et al. � Silicon avalanche photodiodes J. Synchrotron Rad. (2006). 13, 131–142
Figure 10Photograph of an eight-channel assembled array from Hamamatsu. Theactive area of each element is 3 mm� 5 mm, with about 1 mm dead-spacebetween devices. Note the mount is without backing, potentially allowingstacking of the arrays.
Figure 1116-element array device from Hamamatsu. The device, in a standard 40pin package, is shown in (a) while (b) shows the case including the dualeight-channel preamplifier modules above the main unit. The arrowshows the incident beam direction. The surface of the array is almostparallel (3� offset) to the X-ray beam direction. [Note that the deviceorientation in (a) is rotated by 90� relative to (b) for convenience indisplay.] In (c) the time response of 161Dy in nuclear forward scattering onlinear and log (inset) is shown. The solid line is a fit using the hyperfineparameters of the nucleus. Note the utility (necessity!) of the excellenttime resolution in resolving the beat structure.
Figure 925 element array from PKI (C30985). The photograph in (a) shows onedevice. The central piece of silicon is 2 mm � 9 mm. In (b) the countsfrom two adjacent elements are measured when the array is scannedthrough a small X-ray beam. The elements are�250 to 300 mm (FWHM),with flat tops of �150 mm. The dead-spaces are indicated. Note that ascan in the orthogonal direction (not shown) gives the element width tobe �440 mm (FWHM) with a flat top of about 220 mm.
then allows one to use the thin (�20 mm active thickness)
APD structure with correspondingly good time resolution
(180 ps, when summed over all channels) for higher-energy
X-rays. The device is shown in Figs. 11(a) and 11(b) while
Fig. 11(c) shows the NFS spectrum measured using the 161Dy
resonance at 25.6 keV. Given the high-frequency response of
this sample (up to 10 GHz) and the high energy of the reso-
nance, the value of this sort of detector is clear. It is worth
noting that special care was needed to assemble the two eight-
channel pre-amplifier modules so that they did not oscillate.
An array of discrete elements, S5344 LC (3 mm-diameter),
see Fig. 12, was also tested after successful work with the
monolithic 16-channel array. This was partially motivated by
lack of stability of the 16-element arrays,4 and partially by the
possibility of improving the detector, using larger elements
that could be packaged and replaced individually. Also,
though not the primary concern, the cost of the specialized
monolithic array was greater than a set of individual standard
devices. Ten modules, each with the APD and pre-amplifier,
were assembled as shown in Fig. 12. Devices were selected so
that operation with a common HV supply was possible. Tests
with this device at 14.4 keV showed that it performed well. It
is worth noting that the effective dead-area between devices
(assuming perfect alignment) is 1 mm along the axis, owing to
the silicon chip design with the 3 mm-diameter device on a
4 mm square chip, resulting in a loss of about 25% efficiency.
Even so, the improvement in efficiency is quite significant
(�20) using these at grazing incidence as compared with at
normal incidence.
Many arrays have been fabricated based on beveled-edge
devices (see Table 2). We have not tested them, and refer the
interested reader to the listed references for details. It is worth
noting, however, that to our knowledge these are the only
cases of real square two-dimensional arrays with many
elements, so, if such a device is of particular interest, these
should be examined closely.
9. Conclusions
We have provided an overview of using APDs for fast
detection of X-rays, emphasizing the relative merits of the
various commercially available devices. In general, the ‘fast-
counter problem’ for a single-element device seems largely
solved by the sorts of devices discussed here, and the packages
that have been made at synchrotron radiation facilities, with
�ns time resolution basically for free. Things become slightly
more complicated when high efficiency at high energy is
required, or very good, e.g. 100 ps or less, time resolution is
needed, or both. However, some of the array devices discussed
in x8 may begin to provide solutions. Areas of immediate
applicability of these devices include nuclear resonant scat-
tering and also fast intensity correlation measurements, and
applications can be expected to grow as more devices are
optimized and packaged for synchrotron radiation work.
AQRB is grateful to Tetsuya Ishikawa for helping him
continue work with APDs at SPring-8. Vital contributions
were made in the development of the ESRF APD package
system, by Pablo Fajardo-Sanz, Herve Gonzalez, Ricardo
Hino of ESRF, and Francois Lissalde of Cyberstar SA. JM and
J-MR also thank the numerous beamline staff at the ESRF
who helped with practical tests of the system.
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